“Intense?” He closed up the wet bar and motioning with his glass on his way to take a seat beside me. “It is.” He pulled out his phone out and tapped at the screen. “Take a look.” He held the phone out to me and I took it, looking at the screen. He had pulled up his calendar. “Scroll through it.”
The date was set to last year during the summer vacation period, on a random day. It was jam packed. Meeting after meeting, scheduled interview time, lunch engagements, consultations with all sorts of different executives, dinner meetings, all of it starting early in the morning and ending late at night. I swiped over a few more days. They were all the same. There was no consistency to any of it, other than the fact that he was kept busy all day long.
“Do you get any sleep at all?” I asked, scrolling through. “This is insane. That’s not a reasonable schedule for anyone.”
“It is for me.” Jaeson took a sip from his glass, leaning back and letting his head drop against the wall. “It has to be.”
“Why?” I asked. As I curled my legs up on the couch, I was suddenly self conscious of the fact that I was only in a pair of jeans and a simple button-down, rocking a girlish ponytail. I felt completely underdressed to be anywhere near this place. “You have money. You can escape this life if you want.”
“I can’t,” he responded, a sad, rueful smile on his lips. “All of this is owned by my father. This is just a satellite office, and not one of his busiest hubs, even. It’s the one he’s training me on, grooming me with, until the day comes that he’ll have me start to seriously invest my time towards transition.”
“You mean, taking over the family business?” I asked.
He cast his gaze over the office, at the massive, intimidating mahogany desk and striking leather chair. His shoulders slumped. “Exactly.”
Jaeson seemed to live his persona as the businessman type, cultivating a powerful and authoritative presence. Few people I knew were as driven or as methodical as him.
Still, I felt like he was holding something back.
“Is that something you want to do?” I finally asked.
“I suppose.”
“That’s not exactly a firm yes,” I said gently.
“Maybe it’s just that I’ve managed to get used to the schedule, is all.” He took another sip before setting his glass down on the surface of the coffee table in front of us. “You could say my whole life has been planned out for me.”
“Surely you have some sort of say in the matter?” I asked. “What good is the family business going to be if you don’t have the right person in the role? Don’t you have a sibling, an uncle or aunt, some other family member who can take over?”
“Yes and no,” he said. “I have a sister. She’s brilliant at this stuff. A born leader, completely natural. But…” He flicked his eyes away back to his glass, avoiding my gaze.
“Let me guess,” I said. “It’s because she’s a woman?”
He nodded, looking vaguely abashed.
“Our father is the traditional type. Very much like how it was back in the day, when his father started the business. My old man runs things pretty much the same way.”
“That’s ridiculous,” I said.
“You’re not wrong,” he replied with an edge of anger in his voice. “He’ll never give it to her. I get the sense my family doesn’t really care about me personally, but they sure as hell care about the fact that I have a dick. Legacy and all.”
I rested my head on his shoulder and took his hand, squeezing.
“And what would you like to do?” I asked.
“I just want one unscheduled hour of peace.” He leaned back into the couch, squeezing back. “The closest I ever get to relaxation is when I’m at VIP, but even then, I’m overloaded on courses and extracurricular activities. Anything less than a highly motivated business major would bring shame to the family name.” He reached forward to take his glass again. “I really admire you, you know.”
“How do you mean?” I asked, taken aback. What could a person like Jaeson admire about me?
“You did what I wanted to do,” he said. “You took your life into your own hands, you worked hard for what you wanted, and achieved it. You applied to VIP and left home, throwing yourself into a completely different environment than you’re used to. It must have been terrifying. But you did it anyway.”
“I just wanted to follow my dreams,” I said. “VIP has one of the best literary programs in the country.”
“You were born to be a writer,” he said in that assertive way of his that allowed no protest. “You know that, right?”
“That’s kind of you to say,” I said, my face growing hot. “I was always making up stories when I was a kid, from the very first time I held a crayon, all through school. I knew it was what I wanted. I never considered doing anything else with my life.”
“Just once,” he said, “I’d like to take an art history class. Or maybe music theory, and be more like Riot. But I can’t.” He brought his hand to rest on my cheek, sliding down tenderly over my skin, caressing my neck, running over the curve of my shoulder. “You inspire me.”
I could feel the heat start to turn up between us. The pace of my breathing began to quicken.
“I can’t really believe that.” The words slid out almost breathlessly in the face of my arousal.
“You should.” Jaeson edged toward me, reaching his other hand around to my hip, pulling me closer to him until we were almost nose to nose. “And that’s why I can’t ask anyone else to the ball.”
I slowly drew in a breath, desperately wanting to close the gap between our lips.
“If it isn’t you,” he said, staring into my eyes. “Then I don’t want anyone.”
